The Reception of Holy Communion - Fr. Aaron Hess

    The last month or so, we have been talking about the precepts of the Church, the 5 “bare minimum” requirements that all Catholics have to follow in their lives.  And while things like attending Mass every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation are a little more self-explanatory, I think one of the more confusing ones has to do with receiving Holy Communion.  The Precept holds that every Catholic must receive Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season.  The reason for this is to encourage the faithful to participate with all other Catholics around the world in receiving Christ, of partaking in the “Communion” that not only unites us with Jesus Himself but also with the Church and with the rest of the Body of Christ, with all other Catholic believers.

However, for us today, this can seem like a weird rule.  If you are going to Mass every Sunday, wouldn’t you be receiving the Eucharist a lot more than once a year?  To understand this, we have to look a bit at history.  For quite a long time, it was actually very common for people to not receive Communion at Mass.  There could be many reasons why, whether because they were in a state of grave or mortal sin, or they had not fasted for an hour before communion, or they felt that they were not spiritually prepared enough to receive this great gift.  It was not until Pope Pius X came along and began to encourage frequent reception of Communion that this began to change, and people began to receive more and more, which is a beautiful thing!  The Church encourages us to receive the Eucharist frequently because it is for our benefit.  St. Pope John Paul II said, “The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the presence of Christ, who gives Himself to us because He loves us.”  When we receive this love of God in the Eucharist, we are moved to love in return.

It is important to remember, though, that it is okay for someone, even a Catholic, to not receive Communion at Mass- It still “counts” for your Sunday obligation to go to Mass and not receive.  And unfortunately, even though frequent reception of Holy Communion is an incredible thing and should be encouraged, a side effect of this historic change is that many people do not think twice about receiving Communion, even if they are in a state of sin, or they haven’t been to Mass for a while.  Most people don’t think twice, they just get up from their pews and fall in line with every other person in the church.  But we should take a moment during Mass, or before Mass, and truly look at our selves, to examine our heart and ask ourselves, am I in a state where I can receive Holy Communion today?  Is there any reason that I should not?  And if there is, we should have the courage and the love for Christ to just receive a blessing that week and then doing all we can in the next week to prepare our hearts to receive Him worthily at our next Mass.  

Again, I want to emphasize that the Precepts of the Church are the bare minimum that all Catholics have to follow: Mass every week, Confession and Holy Communion once a year, financially support the Church, and observe days of fasting and abstinence.  A fruitful spiritual life and relationship with God has much, much more than this, but our first step is to aim for these precepts.  If you find that one of these is lacking in your life, I encourage you to focus on that first, to incorporate it fully into your life, so that you can then have a foundation upon which to grow ever closer to Christ.